


The Potions Lesson

by Deccaboo



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-26
Updated: 2012-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-30 04:15:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/327616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deccaboo/pseuds/Deccaboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a Post-Deathly Hallows fic! Don't move beyond this point if you don't want minute spoilers for the end of DH & Potter future.</p>
    </blockquote>





	The Potions Lesson

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cadiliniel](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=cadiliniel).



> This is a Post-Deathly Hallows fic! Don't move beyond this point if you don't want minute spoilers for the end of DH & Potter future.

The Slytherins and Gryffindors lined up outside the Potions classroom in the dungeons, waiting for Professor Slughorn to let them inside. Rose Weasley beamed at her cousin, Albus Potter, and his best friend, Scorpius Malfoy, for unlike the rest of his family she hadn't taken Albus' Sorting negatively and Albus was grateful for her acceptance.

Professor Slughorn slunk past the students dressed in a velvet waistcoat and elegant robes that strained against his very large stomach. His long moustache and balding head gave the students the impression of a large bull walrus carrying a box of crystallised pineapple under his arm. "Well come along, young potioneers!" He called cheerfully, swinging open the doors and ushering them inside.

Albus, Scorpius and Rose found a table together, getting their ingredients and books out of their bags when they were joined by another Gryffindor girl. She was a very pretty Asian girl with dark flashing eyes and a long braid of dark hair plaited with golden ribbon down her back. "This is Shilpa Patil," Rose introduced her friend. "These are my cousin Albus and my friend Scorpius."

Shilpa grinned and asked if she could join them at their table. Rose cleared a space almost bossily pushing Albus and Scorpius further along in an action that reminded Albus quite clearly of Aunt Hermione. Shilpa got out her own ingredients and the class waited for Professor Slughorn to start speaking.

Albus watched with interest as his Head of House lit a fire under his cauldron with the tip of his wand and poured some green liquid into it. The substance began to fume instantly and the whole class gasped as the fumes began to sparkle and crackle in the air before sinking back down inside the cauldron where it simmered and everyone could catch the scent of freshly mown grass. "Can anyone tell me which potion I have just activated?" He asked.

Right beside Albus, Rose's hand shot straight up into the air, it was so fast he could hear the whistle as her hand powered through the air. "Ahh," Said Slughorn. "Miss-?"

"Weasley." Replied Rose proudly.

"Miss Weasley, I should have been able to tell from the red hair," Smiled Slughorn. "Please tell me about this potion."

"It's poaceaelixir, Sir," Rose replied. "And it's used by Herbologists to keep their greenhouse plants healthy. In the outdoors, plants don't need it."

"Excellent and correct!" Said Slughorn, clapping his large hands together. "Ten well deserved points to Gryffindor!"

Rose put her hand down, smiling proudly and opening her book at the chapter on plant potions. Albus and Scorpius did the same quickly, just in case they missed something.

"Now, since today is your very first potions class, I am disinclined to try you out on something more difficult than a herbology potion and seeing as Professor Longbottom has asked me to brew him up some poaceaelixir, I thought we could try our hands at it this morning." Professor Slughorn beamed at everyone. "Get out your scales and ingredients, you'll find everything on page 114, four to one cauldron please, I don't want you to overexert yourself!"

Albus, Scorpius and Shilpa put their cauldrons away because Rose had already started to add ingredients to her cauldron. Shilpa and Rose started discussing whether the book was right or not and the boys stood aside uncomfortably as they argued. Apparently Shilpa was the daughter of a Seer and knew that line 12 of the instructions was wrong because her psychometric touch told her so. Rose, with all the cynicism of her mother, drew herself up to her full (short) height and steadfastly refused to deviate from the 'correct' instructions.

Albus and Scorpius consulted their own potions books. "Al, I think that Rose is right." Scorpius said, hastily sloshing gillywater into the cauldron as according to line 10. Albus stirred the potion anti-clockwise seven times and he and Scorpius were amazed to see sparks of bright green springing up from the muddy sludge at the bottom of the cauldron.

"Me too," said Albus pointing at page 114. "Look, everything's working the way it says it would."

"See?" Said Rose bossily to Shilpa, who scowled.

Professor Slughorn toured the classroom offering a little advice to each table and providing emergency support whenever a student did something dangerous. "There, there, Mr Finnegan," He patted Ronan on the shoulder as the young Gryffindor howled into the sleeve of his robes, "Your eyebrows will grow back in good time!" Ronan clung to Slughorn's robes until the walrus-like potions master brandished his wand and Ronan Finnegan's eyebrows magically returned to their rightful place.

Slughorn approached their table and Albus was relieved to see that Rosie and Shilpa had made up and were enthusiastically adding the tufts of bowtruckle leg hair, which gave the potion its distinctive bright green colour. Scorpius was stirring the potion with a silver stirrer now which helped it thin out and become the elastic, thin substance that Slughorn first poured out into the cauldron on his desk. "Ahh, Mr Potter, Mr Malfoy, Miss Weasley and Miss Patil what an excellent start to poaceaelixir!" Slughorn took the silver stirrer from Scorpius and flourished it inside the potion which gave off green sparks enthusiastically. "Huzzah! You four have done extremely well. Ten points to Gryffindor and to Slytherin for this excellent attempt!"

Rose grinned from ear to ear as they packed their things back into their bags at the end of the lesson. "I can't wait to send an owl to Mum and Dad to tell them all about today's lesson." Albus thought Rosie looked like she was in a world of her own, daydreaming of awards and glory, her eyes shone.

Scorpius smiled at Albus as he packed away his own things. "Considering that was our first potions lesson, I'm really impressed with us!"

"It's not so impressive, Malfoy," said Ronan Finnegan, already taller than both Scorpius and Albus and scarier now his eyebrows were back on. "My Da told me that the only way your Dad got through potions was because the old potions master favoured Slytherins so much...and now you're accepting help from a Gryffindor to get you through."

"No they're not," Rose piped up. "I'll work with whoever I want to work with and Al and 'Pius are really good at Potions anyway. They don't really need any help. Get lost, Ronan!"

"Is everything alright, my potioneers?" Slughorn walked back over to Albus' table.

"Yes, Sir!" Ronan shook his head and shouldered his bag.

"Glad to hear it, Mr Finnegan." Slughorn replied. "Otherwise I may have to take back the gift of eyebrows and leave you to explain to Madam Pomfrey why you were left de-haired whilst making a routine potion!"

Ronan skulked out of the classroom, followed by his usual Gryffindor gang.

"I can't stand them," Shilpa groaned, playing with a loose strand of her hair. "They're always being so nasty to everyone." She looked around at the three friends. "He once stood in the middle of the hallway telling anyone who would listen that his claim to fame is that his Dad plays Quidditch for Ireland." Shilpa sniffed. "He didn't like it much when I told him his real claim to fame was standing around in hallways telling people why they should worship him."

"I remember that," Rose said. "You said 'Your claim to fame is this!' after he said your mother's claim to fame was being a fraudulent Seer."

"He's not going to cross me again soon." Shilpa grinned, still absently playing with the loose strand of her hair.

Albus and Scorpius laughed. "The boys in our dormitory are all nice," Albus said. "But the Gryffindor boys in our year have got a huge problem with us for some reason."

"It's because we're Slytherins," Scorpius said, weakly. "I never thought I'd come to Hogwarts, I've always been really ill as a child and now I'm doubly an outcast because I'm a Slytherin."

"Don't be daft, 'Pius." Albus cuffed his friend on the shoulder, but lightly, because he knew Scorpius was delicate and wanted him to feel like one of the boys without actually hurting him. "You're not an outcast and I told you what the Sorting Hat told me, things are going to get better for Slytherin House from now on."

Scorpius raised an eyebrow, but before he could say anything, Professor Slughorn clapped his hands at the four students and said, "Come along now, Professor Flitwick will be waiting for you and I've got my Seventh years next! You don't want to get trapped in here trying to perform NEWT level Potions do you?"


End file.
